


and the wheels keep on turning

by lucdarling



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, BAMF Lucas Sinclair, Billy Hargrove & Maxine "Max" Mayfield Bonding, Billy Hargrove & Maxine "Max" Mayfield Have a Good Relationship, Billy Hargrove Is Bad at Feelings, Childhood Trauma, F/M, Good Sibling Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Good Significant Other Lucas Sinclair, Inspired by Supernatural (TV), Maxine "Max" Mayfield Is Bad at Feelings, Neil Hargrove's A+ Parenting, POV Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Quote: Saving people hunting things (Supernatural), Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:29:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27497230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucdarling/pseuds/lucdarling
Summary: Max left the road behind when she went to college. She overwrote the training, learned to laugh and built a home in California. It comes crashing down with a late night visitor: her step-brother, who says he hasn't seen his partner in a few days.Now Max and Billy are back together on the road, tracing Steve's last steps from a vampire nest in Chicago to ghosts in the southern US, accompanied by her fiancé Lucas who's a little too comfortable with the idea that horror movies are real.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove & Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington, Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 106
Collections: Stranger Things Rare Pair Big Bang 2020





	and the wheels keep on turning

**Author's Note:**

> Well this has been a very fun thing to work on, especially considering the events of November 5, 2020! There are no angels in this. I started writing this a few months ago, directly inspired by _Supernatural_ 's early seasons. Have fun with the easter eggs though I didn't rewatch any episodes besides the pilot.
> 
> This is a Stranger Things AU but I fit canon around the idea of saving people, hunting things. It's Lucas/Max established relationship because they are cute together and I love writing them as adults. It's also, because it's me, Billy & Max bonding in their own prickly way. I can't help myself at this point. The Harringrove is both background and the driving impetus for Billy; if you're reading this for Billy/Steve content, you might be disappointed.
> 
> Thanks to the mods for running this. Thanks to Ely for the artwork linked in the end notes, to K for editing and Bee for cheerleading. It seems fitting that my first Bang was for SPN a decade ago, and here I am again with SPN-inspired fic for my next.
> 
> Reader, I hope you enjoy. Please leave a comment.

They’re lying in bed when there’s a knock on the door to interrupt their conversation about Lucas’s exam schedule and Max’s plans for the upcoming week at the rec center, where she tutors kids and teaches self-defense to various classes of 11-14 year old girls.

Lucas lets go of her waist to roll over and look at the clock on the nightstand.

“It’s too late to be anything good,” he says as the knock comes again. Someone’s fist, hammering at the door like it’s an emergency. It’s not wildfire season in California yet, there’s no reason for someone to be at the door at this hour.

Something niggles at the back of Max’s mind and she slips out of bed, grabbing her robe off the chair.

“Whoa! Where are you going?” Lucas asks in a harsh whisper, covers pooled around his waist.

“To get the door, dipshit.” Max rolls her eyes.

“That’s how you die in a horror movie,” he says and nearly trips trying to pull his boxers on. He’s so sweet, sometimes Max has to stop and wonder what she did in a past life to deserve him.

Max wishes she had a gun, but she gave that life up. Her trigger finger itches all the same as Lucas puts a hand on the doorknob, his other hand holding the vegetable knife from the kitchen. It’s the sharpest one they own because Max isn’t pulling out her real knife just for a knock at the door. She still hasn’t figured out how to explain things to Lucas.

“I know you’re in there,” says the person on the other side of the door. It’s a voice Max hasn’t heard in years, low and deep.

She pushes past Lucas and opens the front door herself over his protests.

“What are you doing here?” Max growls, even as she gets a fist in his shirt and yanks him over the threshold. She lets out a breath she didn’t know she held as he crosses the welcome mat and the devil’s trap she had hastily drawn on the bottom in permanent marker one day when Lucas was in class.

“Who is this?” Lucas looks confused and Max takes a few steps towards him. “You know him? He looks like a serial killer!”

Max purses her lips and tries to see what Lucas sees: leather jacket, too-long blond hair in need of a wash, blood speckling the tight white t-shirt which means he probably just rolled into town after a hunt. His eyes are haunted, more than usual. 

“He’s my step-brother.”  
“I’m her brother.” 

They speak at the same time and Lucas looks between the two with widening eyes.

Max puts her hand on Lucas’s arm. “Step-brother. Our parents sort of hooked up when we were younger. Lucas, Billy.” She does the necessary introduction with a squeeze of Lucas’s forearm and turns back to the blond asshole crashing into her life.

“Joyce and Hop okay?”

“They’re fine and still not married. Have you heard from Steve?”

Max frowns as she thinks back to the last time she heard from Billy’s hunting partner and friend with benefits. “No, not since last year when we got lunch. He was on his way to Minnesota, I think. Unlike you, he stayed in touch.”

“Like you would have picked up the phone if I’d called.” Billy scoffs and Max can’t find it in her to disagree. They both said things the day she left, words that can’t be taken back but have been left too long between them.

She watches as Billy scratches at the back of his neck, pushes the perpetual wayward curl off his forehead. It does something to Max’s heart to see that not everything has changed. “Steve left for work and I haven’t heard from him in a few days.”

“Okay?” Max raises her eyebrow and lets Lucas intertwine their fingers. He’s being quiet in the face of his mounting confusion and Max knows she’ll have the mother of all explanations once she gets Billy out of the apartment. She isn’t looking forward to it but Max guesses the past can only stay buried for so long. “I seem to remember you disappearing for a day or three too.”

“Not like this,” Billy shakes his head and cuts his eyes to Lucas. “Hey man, real nice to meet you. I owe you a shovel talk-”

“Stop being a misogynistic ass, I can take care of myself!” Max snaps but Billy talks over her.

“-but Maxine and I need to talk about some private family business.”

“No,” Max denies. “Whatever you want to say to me, you can say in front of Lucas.”

Billy drags a hand down his face like Max is testing his patience. It’s a move he picked up directly from Hopper and seeing it makes her heart ache fiercely.

“He left on a hunt a few days and I haven’t heard from him since.” Billy repeats himself, uncharacteristically serious.

“What was he hunting?” Max asks. She doesn’t ask why Billy didn’t go with him, knows he must have been after something just as important if they hadn’t gone together. Probably a kid’s life at stake, knowing both of them.

“We thought it was a nest.”

“Alone? Fuck.” Max swears and turns to Lucas.

“Baby, uh-” her mind stalls out, all those easy excuses she used for years failing her. She doesn’t want to lie to Lucas.

“Nest of what? Demons? I was a force to be reckoned with in my neighborhood DnD campaign, you know.” Lucas speaks up with the playful grin Max loves to see on his face. 

Billy snorts. “Cute,” he drawls in Max’s direction, boots stomping toward the door. “You coming with me or what?”

“Am I doing what?” she snaps at him. She uses her free hand to gesture at her state of undress because oh yeah, she’s still holding Lucas’s hand. He’s holding her tightly and she squeezes his hand gently to tell him she’s still here.

“I’ll give you twenty minutes, but I gotta get on the road.” His voice drops as he takes a step closer, face twisting like the next words are going to hurt. “I need you, Max.”

Max drops her hand from Lucas to put a hand on her step-brother’s arm. They’re not the hugging sort but he clearly needs something to ground him right now. She’s never, ever heard those words from him except once before - and Max had still walked away to find herself, to try a life with dreams of a dog and a picket fence. It’s a life she finally started to build with Lucas when she accepted his proposal. “I’m bringing some of my music and you will not complain about it.”

Billy sighs. He doesn’t thank her for uprooting her life on a moment’s notice in the middle of the night. Max doesn’t expect it of him. She’s not even sure he knows how to say the words. 

“There’s beer in the fridge, help yourself.” Max drags Lucas down the hallway back to their shared bedroom. The sheets are still rumpled and the room smells like sex. It feels like hours, though the clock shows Billy knocked on their door less than forty minutes ago.

“What is going on? You’re related to him?” Lucas doesn’t yell as soon as the bedroom door closes. He never yells, and Max is thankful. She finds her old duffle bag in the back of the closet and throws it on the bed before turning to face him.

“You’re going with him.” Lucas’s voice is strained. Max frowns and hugs him. His arms come around her shoulders automatically and she leans against him, still looking at the empty bag on their bed.

“I have to. Billy doesn’t ask for things, not like this.”

Lucas chuckles against her hair, one hand coming up to cup her face so he can see her. “Not to go off first impressions, but that isn’t a surprise. Probably listens to like, Metallica and Judas Priest.”

Max giggles because Lucas isn’t wrong about Billy’s music tastes. She steps away to start getting dressed. She pulls on underwear and jeans, throws a second pair of denim at the bed. Three pairs of socks and one on her feet, two bras and as many t-shirts as she can fit in one hand.

“So you’re taking off in the middle of the night to go find this Steve. Who stumbled across some sort of vampire nest.” Lucas groans and starts getting dressed himself. “You realize how crazy this sounds, right?”

“The world is older than you know-” Lucas throws a shirt at her face as Max begins the quote from _Buffy_ and then they’re both laughing. She knows she’s over-tired and adrenaline is still rushing through her.

“Okay, so what do I need to bring?” Lucas calls to her as Max stands in the bathroom and scoops all her toiletries into a smaller bag. She drops it and everything scatters across the tile.

“Bring? You’re not coming with!” She flies out of the room and puts her hands on her hips as Lucas starts rolling his shirts and jeans to fit next to hers.

“I’m not letting you drive off in the middle of the night, Max! Not with a stranger, no matter that you’re telling me you grew up with him!”

“Exams! You have to take them next week!”

“I’ll do it remote. Or maybe my grandmother suddenly died!” Lucas says and oh, they’re shouting now. “If you walk out that door, I may never see you again!”

His eyes are wet when they look at her standing across the room. “I can’t let you go alone. If a Party member requires aid, it is the duty of the Party to aid him. Or her, in this case.”

Max blows out a breath and scrubs a hand through her hair. “Leave some room in the bag for weapons.” The grin Lucas gives her is blinding and she returns it with more hesitance. Lucas doesn’t notice.

She heads back into the bathroom to pick up her toiletries. It doesn’t take long and then Max is reaching under the nightstand for the gun, then Lucas’s nightstand for the ammo taped under the drawer he only uses for reading glasses and whatever magazine he’s picked up.

Lucas breathes out a compliment or a surprised noise when Max pushes the hanging clothes aside and kneels for the wrapped bundle that’s been hidden inside her suitcase since they moved in together. Her favorite knife is still sharp. The holy water is likely still good, no reason that would have an expiration date.

“Ready?” she asks Lucas, who picks up his childhood slingshot from its pride of place on their dresser and tucks it next to his clothes. Max doesn’t say anything at the addition. “You don’t have to do this, and if you come you’re not doing anything more than sitting in the car. Got it?”

“Ready.” Lucas affirms and Max reels him close for a kiss.

“Gonna rock your world,” Max says with a sharp grin as she picks up the bag. She gets two steps towards the door and Lucas takes it from her. She lets him without a fuss.

“You always do, babe.” Lucas says with that grin she adores. He looks besotted and Max still marvels that it's directed at her.

They head back to where Billy’s waiting, head tipped back on the couch in a light doze. Max wonders when the last time he slept was, knows it was probably the last time he and Steve shared a room.

She sends Lucas to the kitchen to pack up their sodas, beer, any snack-type food they have lying around. It should be a substantial amount, since both of them hate cooking.

“Hey,” Max says from where she stands near Billy’s feet. She still has a scar on her forearm when she shook him awake after a hunt; Max had told Lucas it was from a tree branch scraping her when she fell out of it. The only thing the two stories had in common is that she was fourteen. “We’re ready.”

Lucas appears from the kitchen, cooler bag hanging from one shoulder.

“We?” Billy sits up and looks between them. “Oh no, he’s not coming along. I’m not taking a tourist. He looks like he’s going to a picnic!”

“We’re both going or you’re going alone,” Max threatens with a glare. “You came to me in the middle of the goddamn night and asked for my help. You get both of us. Lucas will stay in the car.”

“Great,” Billy grumbles and is the first to head out the door. “Let’s get a move on then.”

Lucas follows Billy down the stairs to the parking lot as Max takes one last look around their apartment. He was right about one thing: she’s leaving and she might not be back. Hunts are usually easy things, better with a partner and Max knows that Billy is one mean son of a bitch. Something in her gut though, tells her this won’t be easy.

Lucas is already sitting in the backseat of the Camaro when Max finds them. He runs a hand over the leather seats in appreciation.

“No wonder you hated driving my sedan, Madmax! This boat’s a beauty.”

Max rolls her eyes as Billy barks out a laugh. “You think I let her drive my baby? Think again! Girl’s got a lead foot and no sense of direction.”

“Says the man who got us lost in the Iowa cornfields,” Max returns dryly, already bunching up her sweatshirt to use a pillow. “Where are we headed?”

“Byers’ Roadhouse, to check in. Dustin might have some leads. Should be there by tomorrow night if I push it.”

“Where?” Lucas asks.

“They’re on the west side of Sioux Falls.” Billy gestures with his hand like he’s shooing a fly.

“Just try to get some sleep,” Max twists her head to look at Lucas. “Billy will drive all night, won’t be the first time.”

“Nope,” Billy pops the ‘p’ as he fiddles with the volume dial. Max falls asleep between one breath and the next to the familiar sound of the Camaro’s wheels rolling over asphalt.

* * *

The Byers’ Roadhouse is a welcome sight after a full day cooped up in the car. They’d taken a few breaks for gas as needed, but Billy seemed hellbent on getting to Sioux Falls. Max didn’t blame him.

They still haven’t talked about the night she’d left. Nor had she told Lucas her introduction to the life. Both were things Max didn’t care to remember.

Max pulls Lucas by the hand into the Roadhouse and watches as Billy makes a beeline towards the bar. Dustin is already sitting in the corner, head down towards his electronics. It’s like she never left at all. She flicks the baseball cap off to get his attention.

“Should really watch your surroundings,” Max chides as she laughs at his look of surprise.

“Yeah, like anything is gonna happen when I sit here, in my spot, in a bar full of Hunters.” Dustin whines but he gets up to greet her. “How have you been? Not much internet presence, glad you listened to something I said at least once!” His attention turns to Lucas, who is looking around the Roadhouse with bright interested eyes. “Who’s this?”

“Lucas Sinclair, fiancé.” Max introduces him with a smile. “Dustin Henderson, tech guru.”

“Nice to meet you,” Lucas holds his hand out and Dustin shakes it. Max has the peculiar feeling that her two worlds are colliding and they won’t be separated so easily now.

Billy comes over to them, the necks of four beer bottles held in his large hands. “What have you got, Henderson?”

“You said he was headed towards a possible vampire nest in Chicago?” Dustin types something in and then leans forward in his chair to look at Billy under the dim lighting.

“Dude, you need to crash in the back for some real sleep.”

“No can do, gotta get my boy back.” Billy shakes his head. He raises the beer bottle for a drink and Dustin swipes it from his hand.

“Nope. You either go on your own to get some sleep or I call Joyce over to mother-hen you into bed. I’ll yell right now for her, don’t think I won’t.”

Billy makes a half-hearted grab for the beer and Max slides it from Dustin’s grasp to her own, still out of Billy’s reach. “He’s right, Billy.”

“I don’t know Steve,” Lucas adds his two cents. “But you can’t safely operate a hot wheels car let alone that Camaro right now. From what I’ve heard, it sounds like Steve can handle himself and Chicago is what, three hours from here?”

“Closer to four,” Dustin chimes in. “Sleep a minimum of six hours, I’ll drug you if I have to.”

“You’re all mother hens,” Billy gripes but stands from the table. “Guess I’ll see you in the morning.” Max watches as he weaves his way through the crowd and towards the bar. She raises an eyebrow at the bottle of Jack he picks up from behind the scarred wood counter but leaves it alone.

“Does that happen often?” Max quietly asks Dustin before he gets back in the zone of staring at his laptop. He makes a seesaw motion with one hand.

“When it’s him traveling on his own, he’ll come crash for the night. Usually, he and Steve are way too loud. Billy doesn’t know this yet, but Steve is searching for something.”

Max’s heart stops in her chest, because there’s one thing that Steve would be searching for. She drains the beer bottle as she thinks about what to say.

“Did he find anything?” Lucas takes her hand in his own and rubs his thumb across her knuckles. It’s calming.

“I don’t know.” Dustin removes his ball cap to tug at his hair. “We lost touch as he was driving up to Chicago and that was six days ago. I got a location ping so I can direct you where to go once you get to the city, but other than that you’re gonna be flying blind.”

“Goddamn it.” Max swears, thumping a fist on the table. The empty beer bottles clatter with the force of her anger and Lucas moves his hand to her shoulder, squeezing lightly. “Thanks for the news, Dustin. I’m going to say hi to Joyce and we’ll rack out in the back too until Billy wakes up.”

“Good seeing you again, Max.” Dustin smiles widely and then turns back to his laptop.

“C’mon, I want you to meet Joyce.” Max says to Lucas as she stands. “She’s going to love you.”

“And Joyce owns the place?”

“For as long as I’ve known her,” Max confirms, standing on her tiptoes to look over the crowd. Most are seated but the crowd around the bar makes it difficult to tell who’s pouring drinks. “Oh!”

Joyce is smoking near the back entrance, flannel tied around her waist. She spots Max as they break through the crowd and her face lights up.

“Welcome back, honey!” She throws her arms around Max, hugging her close. “I thought I saw your brother around here, I didn’t know you’d tagged along! How have you been?”

“Good, even though I thought I was out of this life.” Max doesn’t mean to sound sullen but knows it probably comes off like that.

“It’s not so bad,” Joyce smiles and pushes her away gently to greet Lucas. “Hey there! You come in with her?”

“I really don’t fit in, huh?” Lucas jokes. “Is it my skin?”

“Oh no, sweetheart. You just look a little wide-eyed and you’re not carrying. Pretty big giveaways.” Joyce pats his shoulder with a smile. “Stick with Max though, you’ll be a Hunter in no time I’m sure.”

“I’m not getting back into the life, Joyce.” Max feels the need to interrupt. “We’re just here ‘cause Billy asked for help.”

“Didn’t know he had it in him,” Joyce clicks her tongue. “You know he was real proud of you, getting into school and starting that self-defense class. Came in and crowed all about it, you making something honest of yourself.”

Max shakes her head and sighs as Lucas snickers. “He’s got a funny way of showing it.”

“Men always do,” Joyce commiserates. “Now are you two crashing here?”

“If you don’t mind.”

“Never a problem, I got bunk beds for that reason. But if you go to the last door on the right, you’ll find a queen for the two of you. Sleep tight. It’s about time to cut these yahoos off for last call.” Joyce shoos them in front of her and breaks away to step behind the bar.

Max walks through the hallway and half-open doors, feeling nostalgia in every step. She can’t begin to tally how many nights she’s spent behind the Roadhouse bar, falling asleep to the low rumble of the Hunters getting drunk and Billy’s snores from the bunk beneath hers.

It’s nicer now, Lucas’s chest to her back and his arm thrown over her. Max is older and hopefully wiser, ready to find Steve and then get back to her normal life. The one that exists outside of monsters.

* * *

They get on the road after sunrise the next morning, full of coffee and danishes that Joyce procured from somewhere.

“It’s better I don’t subject you to my cooking,” she apologizes to Lucas when he stumbles in as the last one awake. “My son Jonathan usually does breakfast, but he’s over in New York right now tangling with a striga.”

“Is Nancy still with him?” Max asks. She feels a little bit of remorse for cutting Joyce and the others out of her life after, but a clean break from everything had been required.

“They got married last year, matter of fact.” Joyce beams and rushes out of the kitchen to get the photographs.

“You had to ask,” Billy swallows half of his coffee in one go. “Ten minutes to coo over the white dress and whatever else chicks like, then I’m pulling out towards Chicago.”

“Stop being an asshole, I think it’s sweet!”

Joyce packs them each a bag lunch like Max thinks her mother might have packed her once upon a time: a soda can, a sandwich and some chips.

“All we need is an apple,” Lucas mutters as he digs through the detritus filling the backseat. “It’s a regular back to school special here.”

They reach the outskirts of Chicago in the late morning and hit traffic. It takes another hour to get through the suburbs to the warehouses clustered on the northwest side.

“North Pulaski,” Lucas mutters, staring at the note Dustin had dropped on top of their bags while they slept. “Somewhere in Humboldt Park.”

The Camaro slows to a crawl as all three of them try to read the numbers written above doorways and on brick posts outside parking lots. It’s a mix of industrial warehouses and bars, probably a good spot for live music and fresh blood once night falls, Max thinks.

Billy pulls the car into the worst looking parking lot next to the For Sale sign. “Always squatting, like rats. Guess it’s hard to sign a lease when you’re dead.”

He turns off the engine and looks over his sunglasses at Lucas. “You’re staying in the car. Do not leave the car.”

“Got it,” Lucas nods. The plastic water bottle in his hands crinkles when he squeezes it.

“Let’s go,” Billy orders Max. She leans over the seat to kiss Lucas swiftly and then climbs out of the car after him.

The two of them walk up to the doorway and Max tries the handle. It’s unlocked, swinging open at the lightest touch. The warehouse interior is cool and dark, pallets and boxes all over in neat rows.

“It’s too quiet,” Billy hisses. His gun is already in his hand, held loosely. Max heads around to the left of the stack, not bothering to read what’s stored inside. It’s been years since she’s done thi and finds it all in muscle memory.

There’s few windows in the place, making it perfect for vampires to start a nest. But they’re not here.

She and Billy meet in the middle of the warehouse, dumbfounded. It’s empty, no sign of Steve or any supernatural creatures.

“He’s not here,” Billy states the obvious and frowns. There’s piles of ash, some scattered across the concrete floor like someone walked through it. He topples boxes over, spilling packing peanuts over the pallet they sit on.

“Not helping anything,” Max murmurs.

“Neither are you!” he snarls back.

“I’ll get Lucas, at least he can help us search for anything Steve might have left behind.” Max heads back out toward sunlight and away from Billy’s dark mood.

“Hey,” she bangs on the roof of the car, watching Lucas jump from inside. “It’s all clear, looks like Steve cleared the nest before we got here. Come help us look for anything he might have left.”

“Okay. I can do that.” He’s full of questions as soon as he sees the first pile of ash and Max answers with all the information she remembers: sunlight isn’t fatal to any but the newly turned, crosses do nothing unless you’re a man or woman of the cloth, and decapitation is easiest.

“I haven’t found anything that decapitation doesn’t work on.” Billy adds with a sardonic smile. He’s three or four rows away from the two of them, peering under boxes and toppling others in an effort to find some sort of sign.

Max and Lucas split up at the end of the aisle.

“I found a cell phone,” Lucas calls from a different part of the warehouse. Both of them head towards his voice with quick steps. “The screen is shattered, but you can put a passcode in. Hope you know it.”

“It’s my birth year.” Billy snatches the phone from Lucas’s hand as pink dusts his cheeks. He runs his thumb across the lock screen of Steve’s face next to his before he punches in the four digits. “He was trying to send a text, it never got sent. Coordinates, probably in the US.”

_New location at 32.6626˚N, 96.7410˚W. Maybe opened after the escape?_

Max types them into her phone, pulling up a location somewhere in Texas.

“Escape?” Lucas asks. “Who or what escaped?”

“I don’t know,” Billy says restlessly, leading them back out of the mess Steve left behind and the bigger one that they’ve made.

Max elbows her fiancé when it looks like he’s going to keep questioning. It’s not the time for that.

“Guess we’re extending this road trip,” Max is the first to say it out loud once they’re back at the car. She isn’t sure how she feels about that. Clearing the warehouse with Billy felt good, productive even if all they got was the beginning of a treasure hunt. Max means to see it through to the end, if only to stop her step-brother from running himself into the ground.

“Oh.” Lucas looks at her in surprise. “I thought maybe we would go home. Steve seems like a capable guy, clearly.” He nods his head to the building they had just searched and torn apart.

“You can,” Max tells him before she thinks about how it might sound. Billy steps away, walking down the length of the parking lot to give them some privacy.

“You wouldn’t come with me?” Lucas turns to face her, takes her hands in his.

“I can’t, not until we find out what happened to Steve.” Max swallows, feeling like a golf ball has lodged in her throat. “I’m sorry. He’s family, Lucas. It’s going to be more of the same, the open road and scary monsters. It’s not for everyone.”

“Yeah,” Lucas says slowly. “But it would be better if you guys had back up, right? You’re used to working with three people.”

“I haven’t done this job in a long time,” Max reminds him. “But yeah, if you wanted. We could keep looking for Steve. Only if you wanted to. Otherwise, we can find you a bus or a plane or something. You can go back to your regular life and forget all this exists.” She waves her hand to encompass the vampires and everything else Lucas has no idea about.

“Forget this exists? Fat chance. Where you go, I go.” Lucas says, like it’s that simple. “In sickness and in health, against vampires and I don’t know, werewolves? Are those real too?”

“Unfortunately.” Max grimaces. She pulls him into a hug, going up on her tiptoes to hook her chin over his shoulder. Lucas’s hand comes up to stroke down her hair and rubs little circles over her back as he holds her close.

“You’re stuck with me, Mayfield. You put that ring on and made me happier than I’ve ever been before. Nothing you throw at me now is going to make me walk away.”

Max blinks and tells herself she isn’t tearing up at the simple declaration.

“You jerk,” she manages to say around the golf ball. Her laugh is a little watery and he kindly doesn’t point that out. Lucas is far too good for her, but like he said, they’re stuck now.

“I love you too.” Lucas pulls back from the embrace to kiss her. Max returns it, closing her eyes and luxuriating in the press of lips on hers. After the past few days, something familiar grounds her.

“Hey!” Of course Billy’s shout ruins the moment. “Stop sucking face and get in the damn car!”

“Siblings everywhere man, always gotta ruin something good.” Lucas comments dryly.

Max laughs and punches his upper arm as she pulls the passenger seat forward in the Camaro. It feels like something good, something new. Max doesn’t believe in god but prays to whatever guardian angel she must have that it lasts.

“Shotgun!” Lucas calls out and she groans theatrically.

“Don’t think this means you’re picking the music,” Billy warns but he’s smiling. His thumb is still tracing over Steve’s face on the cracked phone screen.

* * *

They head south in the Camaro the next day, calling Dustin from somewhere in Illinois. Maybe they’ve finally crossed a state line and it’s actually Missouri; Max has never been able to tell them apart from the passenger window.

“Looks like the coordinates lead to Bauman, Texas. I’m looking at the local papers for what might have caught Steve’s interest. No idea what opened or escaped.” Dustin’s frustration comes through and then it’s only the clicking of a keyboard.

“Why wouldn’t he fucking tell me?”

“It would have been easier to just drive to Texas from our place, rather than west and then further over to Chicago and now south.” Lucas points out from the backseat. 

Max shakes her head. “So much to learn, young padawan. This job is rarely logical.”

Dustin comes back on the line, voice tinny through the speaker phone. “There’s a lake not too far from town, a few miles south. Looks like some kids drowned. That has to be it, knowing Steve.”

“Maybe they exhausted themselves playing in the water? It’s unfortunate but it does happen.” Lucas hesitantly offers.

“It’s been occurring like clockwork since the 1930s, I doubt it.” Dustin rebuts. “Good luck, I’ll be online to talk to whichever one of you pulls research duty.” Max presses end on the phone.

“Maybe a kappa but I doubt it, if people are going missing.” Billy says, starting to count on the fingers of the hand not wrapped around the steering wheel. “Some rotten cousin of Champ, a neck or maybe even a river hag.”

“I put five bucks on it being a hag.” Max slaps her hand against the dashboard, bill in hand. Billy plucks it from her fingers and sticks it on the dashboard. He digs in his back pocket for his wallet, and adds his own money.

“Ten on neck.” Billy meets Lucas’ eyes in the rearview mirror, answering the unasked question. “A neck is like a kelpie, if you know your mythology. Giant monstrous black horse, likes to look real pretty in the moonlight to entice riders then it drags ‘em back into the surf to drown. Necks could be a horse, maybe something else. Usually hangs around Michigan as a pretty looking Scandinavian woman. Look for the wet skirt hems when it’s midday and you’ve found her.”

“Right, okay. But you’re betting,” Lucas says slowly. “You’re betting on what sort of monster has killed people. What if it’s something human?”

“Hardly ever,” Billy waves off the question but Max takes it seriously.

“Then we’d call the cops.”

“We are basically the cops.” Billy interrupts.

“Did you get your badge out of a cereal box?” Lucas needles with a sly smile. He looks slightly ashen over how cavalier she and Billy are, but Max knows he’s going to need to learn how to handle the truth behind all their traveling. It’s never something so kind as the fairies stole away a child; and besides, fairies are wicked messed up. Or maybe he can commiserate with Steve, who also came to this Hunting life late and has managed to reign in Billy’s worst impulses. Max didn’t get a choice.

All Max ever does is egg Billy on. They’re too alike, the first to anger and the first to lash out. She misses Steve’s steady hand and patience when Billy starts running wild.

They reach the southern end of Arkansas and sleep in the car just before the border line rather than spend money on two motel rooms. Lucas doesn’t argue. Max stretches out in the backseat as the shortest of the three and feels like she’s reclaiming her childhood.

The morning drive to Bauman is only two and a half hours and it passes quickly.

“Recon?” Max asks as they drive through the sleepy town. “Hitting the ancient newspapers?”

“Or driving straight to this lake and seeing what stinks? There must be some sign there.” Lucas suggests as Billy follows the signs to the lake that should be somewhere south of the town.

“He gets it,” Billy says with a look of eagerness. 

“You just want to play with some explosives.” Max snarks and rolls her eyes. “Both of you, be careful. Drop me off at the library? I don’t care for sudden amputation.”

“Male bonding at its finest. Catch some fish, start us a fire,” Lucas rubs his hands together. 

Max scoffs as Billy laughs. “City boy here thinks he’s ready to brave the wilderness! We’re still in the suburbs, this so-called lake is probably man made.”

“See you in a few hours, shit for brains,” Max says affectionately as the Camaro pulls to a stop outside the public library.

She enters the quiet building, asks the librarian for the WiFi password and guest pass. Max makes up a story about a research paper focused on the lake and history of the land.

Ten minutes later, Max is settling into a comfortable overstuffed chair in a corner of the library, skimming digitized news articles and a chat window with Dustin.

>> How are things going?

> Lucas and Billy went to investigate the lake with some semtex. I’m research girl.

>> Less chance of losing a hand. Knew I liked you best.

> That’s what I said! Heard anything from Steve? Billy is quiet about it but it’s clearly getting to him.

Max waits for the ellipsis of the chat program to tell her Dustin is typing a response, but nothing arrives for the next hour. He probably got pulled away by Joyce or a different hunt that someone else is currently in the middle of. She shuts the laptop down and heads out to walk around the town, maybe ask a few questions.

There’s no one on the streets to even discuss the weather with and Max gets a sinking feeling in her stomach. The diner she circles back to at the end of the block is sparsely populated.

“Where is everyone?” she asks the waitress, an older woman who’s probably worked this very job her entire life. Her name tag is dulled and reads Betty.

“You must be new,” Betty clucks her tongue and drops off a mug of coffee. “There haven't been many around these parts since those government folks left town and the deaths started up again. All the parents stay indoors or move away. Getting to be a regular ghost town. What brings you down here?”

“Just passing through and wondering, is all.” Max gives her a smile. “Should only be here a day or two. Sorry to hear about the deaths and the lack of big business. It seems like it’s happening all over the place.”

She thinks about asking further about these government folks but knows Steve isn’t dumb enough to go chasing a rumor about their version of the bogeyman on his own.

“Oh, you travel a lot? Ah, young wanderlust,” Betty remarks with a smile. “It sure is a shame, but what can you do. We got lucky, I suppose, the government suits put in enough orders to keep us running an extra two years. Well, let me know if you want dessert.”

* * *

Lucas and Billy join her in about an hour, Billy’s hair turned to dark blonde as it dries.

“Decide to take a swim?” She raises an eyebrow and scoots over in the booth seat for Lucas to join her. He grins at her and Max can’t resist a quick kiss when he looks so happy.

“Did you find anything we can use?” Billy asks instead of answering, which doesn’t surprise her.

Max lowers her voice, eyes cutting to Betty who stands at the counter refilling napkin containers while they peruse the laminated menu. “Parents are keeping their kids indoors. Town is dying off.”

“Towns are dying all over the States, no thanks to the economy.” Lucas mutters, unknowingly echoing Max’s words from earlier.

“Nothing there except fish. I might have tipped overboard, scanning for life.” Billy says with a sigh as Lucas chuckles. “I think this is another place Steve’s already been. Twice in a row seems too much like a coincidence.”

Betty comes over and they order sandwiches, Billy turning on the charm. Lucas stares at him in visible surprise.

“Are you like a split personality? You are one of the grumpiest people I have ever met and then-” Lucas waves his hand to indicate Betty walking away with a sway to her hips she didn’t have before.

Max groans and puts her head in her hands. “It’s just the Hargrove effect. Don’t fall for it, manipulative bullshit to the end.”

“That bullshit kept you fed,” Billy growls, back to surly.

“And I’m grateful for that,” Max answers calmly. “Doesn’t mean it’s any less a con.”

“Want me to leave you two alone?” Lucas asks jokingly. “You two clearly have some things to hash out. I can go uh,” he points to a booth on the other side of the diner. “I’ll go sit over there if you want.”

Max puts her hand over his and squeezes. “It’s fine. We’re fine.”

“Just been a while since we’ve hit the road together,” Billy says, smacking the ketchup bottle over his fries like it insulted his mother. “She was itty bitty then.”

“Shut up.”

“Hair in pigtails, big gap tooth grin,” Billy continues with a wide smile as Lucas laughs. Max wads up her napkin and throws it across the table even as she laughs herself and they eat.

“Excuse me Betty,” Billy turns on the charm as he pays the bill in cash and picks out a piece of pie for the road. “You wouldn’t happen to have seen a guy my age in here earlier, maybe sometime last week?”

“Oh, you’re talking about Steve!” Betty lights up and fans her face with a menu. “He was such a sweetheart. And that makes you Billy! He told me all about you, sorry I didn’t realize it earlier.”

Max does her best to muffle her laughter as she overhears the waitress. “Steve seemed to think you’d be travelin’ on your own,” Betty continues obliviously. “I’m glad you picked up some friends.”

“Uh-huh,” Billy shakes his head. “Did Steve happen to mention anything else, like where he was going?”

“Not where he was headed, exactly, but he told me all about this treasure hunt he’d set up. It sounded very exciting and that it was top secret.” Betty grins again as she hands Billy his change and then ducks down under the counter. “Yes, he gave me something for you. Hold on just a minute. I might have left it in the back.” She bustles off.

Billy taps his foot impatiently, putting the extra bills back in his wallet after laying down a tip.

“Here you go!” Betty hands him an envelope. “So what stop is this? Do you know how many there are?”

“Don’t know,” Billy says curtly. “You’re number two so far. He sent us up to Chicago earlier.”

“Oh my,” Betty says. “What a love of adventure you two must have!”

“You don’t know the half of it, Betty. Thank you so much for passing on this message,” Billy says, tucking the envelope in his jacket pocket. He reaches out to touch her hand. “I really appreciate it.”

Betty waves the three of them off, still smiling. Max rolls her eyes as she climbs into the backseat.

“That poor woman is going to be disappointed in every customer she gets from now on and it’s all your fault.” Max points out.

Billy makes a face at her and opens the envelope with the edge of his thumb under the sealed paper. Steve’s handwriting is rushed and sloppy.

_Blacksburg ghost. Govt only here for a short time, no sign of where they went. Old lab is a bust, boarded up tight._

“The old lab,” Billy holds the paper up to the sunlight like it will reveal something new written on a watermark. “He wouldn’t.”

Max hums in thought. “No, he’s not dumb enough to go after them on his own. But it would explain leaving his phone behind.”

Billy rubs a hand over his face at her words.

“Lab?” Lucas asks, confusion clear.

“A bogeyman,” Max says with a shrug. “Think of the quintessential Bad Guy in every film you’ve seen, give them unlimited resources and a bad translation of a demon summoning circle. That’s how they started, anyhow.”

Billy adds unnecessarily, “They haven’t gotten any better over time.”

“So we’re going after the lab?” Lucas looks between them.

Max shakes her head. “Absolutely not. They’re massive, finger in every nasty pie you can think of as far as the supernatural goes. That’s even if they exist. More than a few Hunters don’t even believe they’re real.”

“So we’re off to wherever this Blacksburg is, then?”

“Might as well,” Billy agrees. “Need to figure out where it’s located, first.”

They spend the night in a motel after Max and Lucas both put their foot down about sleeping in the Camaro a second night in a row. Billy has newspapers spread out across one of the beds while Max scrolls through the internet newspapers, teaching Lucas the fine art of reading between the lines and forum boards which are usually full of conspiracy theorists but sometimes a treasure trove.

“The only Blacksburg I can find is in Virginia,” Max announces, rubbing at her eyes. “Steve was right, it’s probably a ghost.”

“How long ago?”

Max clicks around the real estate listing. “Bank has owned the property for the past five years, had only two offers and they both fell through for unexplained reasons.”

“One of the message boards has something from a contractor who did some electrical work,” Lucas says, scrolling on his phone. His feet are propped up on the small table and Max smacks them to the floor with a thump. “He reported feeling the heebie-jeebies and said doors were slamming left and right like some sort of stage musical for Beetleju-”

“Don’t say that name.” Billy warns, shaking a finger. “Don’t do it.”

“It’s a kid’s movie.” Lucas says confused. “Just like when you say in a mirror-”

Max claps her hand over his mouth. “Nope. Don’t do it.” She says, staring into his eyes. “Please do not invite anything in. Ever.”

She takes her hand away as Lucas tries to talk.

“I thought that was just your doorway rule?”

“Anything if enough people believe in it.” Max repeats with a shiver. “Just be smart, Lucas. Now that you know some of what’s out there, use that brain you’re so proud of.”

“Not a bad idea to tat him,” Billy points out, folding up the newspapers into some semblance of order. “Now that he knows.”

Max spins and crosses her hands over her chest. “Absolutely not. It’s his choice!”

“What’s the purpose of the tattoo?” Lucas says cautiously.

“Prevents possession,” Billy answers casually, pulling his half-open shirt aside to show off the ink over his heart.

“Is that what that is?” Lucas asks Max, expression incredulous and maybe a little hurt. “You said it was a drunk dare!”

“Yeah, I lied,” Max says baldly. She rubs her upper chest. “It’s in white ink. Hurt like a bitch. Not like I could say hey babe, that tattoo you’re so fond of leaving hickeys on is to prevent a demon from taking my body on a joyride.” She gives the finger to Billy as he makes a face.

“Right.” Lucas says. “So Blacksburg is in Virginia. Any particular reason we’re headed northeast? Do you guys just pick a direction and search for something spooky in the area?”

“Basically,” Billy confirms. “But we’re headed up to New York eventually. Might as well do some good along the way, not like a ghost exorcism takes more than a night now that Dustin narrows down the search for us.”

“Jim?” Max tries to quell her excitement. She claps her hands together. “We’re really getting the band back together.”

“Steve deserves the best if he really found something.” Billy murmurs as he gathers his travel kit and heads into the bathroom. The door shuts behind him with a final click.

“Who’s Jim?”

Max sits in Lucas’s lap now that Billy’s out of the room, however briefly. “Old friend of the family. You’ll like him.” Then she kisses him and puts aside all of her brain’s attempts to drag her down memory lane.

* * *

They make it to Virginia in two days, pulling up to the house Dustin helped them locate. Max had gone over the plan with Lucas, pretending to be a newly engaged couple looking for their first house on the phone with the realtor. 

“The first part isn’t a lie,” Max soothes Lucas’s worry.

“Why do we have to pretend, though?”

Max looks to Billy for an explanation as they enter the house behind the woman clad in a skirt and blazer to their own jeans and boots. She had never understood it either growing up, using fake ids or playing dress up when it wasn’t required. She knows it’s a holdover from Neil nowadays, he who always looked to game the system but hasn’t broached that topic with Billy. There’s not enough whiskey in the world to make the two of them talk about the man that raised them.

“It’s easier, reminds you it’s just a job.” Billy says quietly, free hand flexing at his sides as he looks down at the EMF meter in the other before he slides it back into his pocket. “Got a cold patch at the kitchen doorway to the basement.”

“Oh, the basement.” The real estate woman turns and gives a sad smile. “I have to legally disclose this property is where the previous occupant died. You aren’t just lookie-loos, are you?”

“No ma’am,” Lucas takes Max’s hand. “We’ve just enrolled at Virginia Tech, thought it would be better to buy somewhere rather than rent for all the years it’s going to take me to get my master’s in electrical engineering.”

“Oh, grad students and newlyweds!” The woman turns back to a human personification of sunshine and Southern charm, prattling off the best restaurants and clubs in the area. Billy and Max trade smiles behind her back as Lucas engages her in conversation easily.

“He’s good,” Billy says in an undertone.

“He is,” Max agrees fondly. “So the basement?”

“Definitely.”

“Did you see the lockbox code?” Billy nods at her question, like she counted on. Max hurries up the stairs to catch up with Lucas and the real estate agent, leaving Billy to poke around the lower level on his own.

They return that night, wearing dark colors and with duffle bags.

“Are you sure this is safe?” Lucas asks hesitantly as Billy retrieves the key and opens the front door.

“Safe? Mostly. Legal? No.” Max chuckles. They all head down to the basement, Billy making a beeline for a corner of the drywall in the unfinished room.

He gets within two steps of it before he goes flying backward with a shout. Max spins around the room, looking for any sign of the ghost.

There’s a patch of white near the small window.

“Hey there,” Max greets the ghost softly. “We’re here to help you, I promise.” She doesn’t get a chance to say more as the ghost rushes them. Max dives to the side and pulls Lucas down with her.

The unearthly wail rings in her ears as Billy gets up with a groan from the other end of the room.

“I don’t think it wants our help,” Max says with a sniff.

“Too damn bad,” Billy says. “Bones are almost definitely behind that drywall, we’re gonna salt and burn.”

“Without burning the house down,” Max says firmly. Billy shakes his head in agreement.

“I’ll go get the shovels, just hold him off if he comes back.”

Max waves the tire iron at Lucas. “Rock salt is normally what we use to hold ghosts at bay,” she tells him as her eyes scan the room, her back to his. “But y’know, that would probably invite cops if the neighbors heard gunshots in the middle of the night from an empty house.”

Lucas takes out his phone and texts, fingers flying across the tiny keyboard. “I think I have a solution.”

Billy returns shortly, shovel clutched in each hand. He tosses one to Max and pulls the slingshot Max barely remembers Lucas packing away from his back pocket. A handful of rock salt shells follow.

“Not a bad idea,” he says grudgingly. “Since we’ll be busy digging. Any sign of white, you fire. Make it count.”

“I’m on it,” Lucas nods seriously.

Max grips the shovel and silently mourns the state of her hands.

“It won’t be six feet, no way a pro buried the body. Can’t imagine the cops didn’t find it when it first happened.” Billy tells her, already one foot on the shovel to push it into the ground. 

“Probably didn’t look that hard,” Lucas says darkly.

Billy shrugs, tying his hair back. “Yeah, you’re right.” He gives Max a look when he sees her stretching her hands out. “Cheer up. Two people digging, it’ll go twice as fast.”

“Cheer up,” Max mocks but follows suit. The ghost comes back three more times before they hit what remains of the body. Lucas nails the specter every time just as soon as its corporeal enough, rock salt scattering against the wall and dissipating the ghost.

“I used to be a pretty good shot back in the day,” Lucas says when they’re standing around, waiting for the flames to die down. They’ve opened the window and are taking turns waving their arms to fan the smoke out. Max crosses her fingers that it won’t attract undue attention but there’s nothing to be done short of moving the bones elsewhere. Billy refuses to ferry them in his car so they’re salting and burning in the basement.

“If anything,” Max says as she looks at Lucas lit by the red-orange glow, “you were understating your talent.”

“Thanks, babe.” Lucas says with a wide grin. He spins the slingshot in his hand and fumbles the catch. She cackles.

“There’s the loser I adore.” She sways into his side. “Think we should make s’mores?

“Over a burning body?” Lucas confirms. “Uh, I think I’ll pass.”

“You did a nice job,” Billy tells him as he smothers the last of the fire. “Good looking out. Not many people could keep their head on straight during that.”

“Thanks,” Lucas says. Max puts an arm around his waist as they watch the fire die out. They all take turns shoveling the dirt back into the hole. Max is exceedingly glad it wasn’t a full six feet.

“Are we getting sleep or hitting the road?” Lucas asks as they all lean back and relax once in the car parked a few blocks away.

“Listen to this guy,” Billy grins, wiping sweat off his face. “We’re getting some shut eye, leaving after I eat my fill at whatever Hampton Inn breakfast gets me.”

“Ooh, upgrading from a motel.” Max teases.

“I need a shower with better water pressure than our usual dive,” he shrugs. “So do you, stinky.” He holds his nose and rolls down the windows with his other hand.

Lucas laughs from the backseat, covered in his own fair share of grave dirt and sweat. Max feels something in her heart lighten, like maybe she could have it all.

Max will tell Lucas eventually about how she ended up driving around the states with her step-brother and step-father, moving school every year if not each semester. She will. It’s just hard to know where to begin.

No one who hears “I saw my mother die when I was eight” ever looks at her the same way.

It comes crashing down that night, when she and Lucas are in their own room and under the covers.

“This isn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” Lucas says, looking at the ceiling. “Traveling from place to place, seeing different things and helping people.”

Max feels herself grow cold even though the sweat’s been wiped away with her t-shirt from their second round.

“No one is going to know what we did tonight, Lucas.” Max tells him as she turns on her side. “It’s not legal, easily over half the stuff we did. If we do help a living person, because they’re possessed or a loved one got taken by some creature, there’s no easy explanation.”

“Heroes go unsung all the time,” Lucas counters. His eyes are alight with passion.

“And heroes die,” Max sits up in bed. “Werewolves are people for three fourths of the month, some of the so-called river monsters are older than the towns that dam up and ruin their homes. I don’t want you to throw your life away. I don’t want to see you needlessly hurt.”

Lucas sits up too and puts a warm hand on her leg. “I understand that, Max. I do. But this life,” he gestures to the hotel room and the bag of gear sitting on the desk. “This life is something I’m good at.”

“You’re good at lots of things,” Max reminds him. “And you have a family that cares about you.”

“You’ve got Billy, Joyce and Dustin.” Lucas counters. “I can tell my parents I work remotely, or open a consulting business. Ghosthunters Limited.” His laughter dies when Max doesn’t join in.

“I had a family.” Max says quietly. “I had a mom, and a dad. He left when I was small, unrelated to all this business.”

“You’ve never really talked about your family.” Lucas’s voice is just as quiet.

“My mom had red hair like me. Her name was Susan. She met Neil, Billy’s dad, in a bar downtown. I don’t know what he was hunting, but he grew up a Hunter and put it away for his wife when they had a kid.”

“Billy.”

“Billy.” Max confirms. “Then she died, demon possession I think. That was one of the topics we did not discuss. There were a lot of those growing up.”

“So Billy and his dad moved in with you, even though his dad was a Hunter and on the road? How did that work? Did your mom think he was a trucker?” Lucas’s mind moves quickly.

Max shrugs. “I don’t know. I was pretty young. Then the demon came back.”

Lucas’s hand tightens on hers before letting go and he pulls her against his side. “I can guess how this story ends, Max.”

“Yeah, you can.” Max is dry-eyed as she tells it, because it’s old news to her. She will always love her mother but her mom is a distant memory now. “So Neil lit up and took off, after the demon. Billy followed as his son, not like he had a choice in the matter only being a kid.”

“And you?”

“Neil took me along too.” Max says, crossing her ankles over one another under the covers. “It was too late for my mom and he must have known that. He told me I was going to help save her anyways, with the bond of a child and a mother’s love. There’s no such thing, Lucas. I was kidnapped and I watched my mother’s exorcism. Her death. I was eight. Neil couldn’t just drop me back into my regular life, not when I had some idea of what was really out there. So he took me on the road and taught me, taught Billy how to defend ourselves. How to protect.”

“Shit,” Lucas sums up quietly.

“This mark?” Max lifts her arm and twists it, so Lucas can see the scar. “I fell into a pile of debris when we were chasing the Goatman in Maryland.” She sighs when all Lucas does is bend his head to kiss the healed injury.

“What I’m saying, Lucas, is that this life isn’t safe. You’ve been lucky so far, an ashed nest and a bust in Texas. The ghost we took care of today is your usual fare. They can hurt you but usually only when they’re very motivated or very old.”

“That’s why we’re going to stick together.”

“We?”

“I told you before,” Lucas cups her cheek with a smile. “It’s you and me.”

“And if I don’t want this? I walked away from it once.”

“I’m happy you did, otherwise we probably wouldn’t have met. But you’ve been happier this week, even crammed in a car listening to nothing but metal and pop music that belongs in the 80s. I know you love teaching self-defense,” Lucas continues with a finger over Max’s mouth when she goes to argue. “But I don’t think you should discount your feelings here.”

“My feelings are to find Steve, watch Billy punch him for being an enigmatic asshole, and go back to my normal life, with you.”

“We still can,” Lucas says and slides down so he’s fully under the covers again. “Just think about it, okay? Whatever you want to do Max, I’m with you.”

Max scoots down so her head is on the thin hotel pillow. She lets Lucas throw an arm over stomach and stares at the window blinds, turning the idea over in her head. She isn’t sure when sleep finds her.

* * *

“So why are we driving all the way to upstate New York? This guy doesn’t have a cell phone?” Lucas asks from the backseat the next morning. Max refreshes her phone and lets Waze tell her the fastest route. 

She and Lucas haven’t discussed their conversation last night but she’s already running the pros and cons for both herself and Lucas. She knows damn well that walking away from what you’ve known is hard and can be ugly. Max wants to figure out an easier way for Lucas, something where they can be on the road but still stay in touch with his family.

Well, it looks like Max has made her decision if that’s how she’s already thinking.

“Service cuts in and out, if he’s even got it turned on,” Billy says gruffly. “Which Jim rarely does, thinks the government is tracking him. He’ll have books we can use if we need any research done.”

Lucas gives a grim smile. “He’s not wrong, gotta say. But there’s also ham radio, and I don’t know, are messenger pigeons still a thing? Besides, I thought that town with no cell towers was in West Virginia.”

“He’s in the Catskills,” Max explains as she taps at her phone and holds it up to her ear while the ringtone plays out. “It’s easiest to get a message through his daughter Jane, but she’s not picking up either.” She doesn’t say she isn’t certain that Jane would take her call.

“Jim and Jane,” Lucas says not quite under his breath. “Living in a storybook.”

“Not hardly,” Max turns her frown to him and Lucas holds up his hands in silent apology. “They’ve both had it rough. It wasn’t a Disney fairytale.”

She can see Lucas swallow back the questions he didn’t ask last night. Billy reaches out to turn the music up a little louder, his own silent apology as Fleetwood Mac starts the guitar intro to “The Chain.”

The Camaro winds its way up the highway, Max making grabby hands at a boiled p’nuts roadside stand as they pass. She introduces the joy of them to Lucas, who’s lived his entire life in California. Max throws handfuls of shells at Billy until he blasts an early Scorpions album he knows she hates.

They reach Jim’s place the next afternoon.

“Okay,” Max says as she pulls back the front seat to let Lucas out of the car. “He’s gonna be really weird at first. Please just go with it, I promise I will explain everything.”

The front door of the cabin creaks open.

“Hey, old man.” Billy shouts. “Remember that you like us, don’t shoot my car. The paint job’s new.”

“I only like your sister,” calls out a voice and Max grins. It sounds like home to her. “You’re just a pain in my ass.”

“Good thing I’m here then,” Max answers loudly. “I even brought a friend.”

An older man with a dark beard growing gray at the edges steps onto the porch at that, shotgun resting over a shoulder. He looks at the three of them warily before he gives a loud sigh.

“Looks like more than that, with that rock on your finger. Get over here, you two rascals.”

Max is up the steps in a flash, throwing her arms around her sort of father figure. Billy ushers Lucas ahead of him with a wave of his hand.

“You stay on the welcome mat,” Jim orders and Lucas steps cautiously onto it. It says welcome in a curly font. “Billy, first cabinet on the left.” Max gives an unimpressed look at Jim’s order but doesn’t argue.

“Got it.” Billy says and heads inside. He comes back in a minute, shot glass of clear liquid held in his left hand. “Bottoms up, Sinclair.”

“Really?” Lucas asks suspiciously. “I hardly know you and you want to get me drunk?”

“Just drink it, kid.” The older man orders. He crosses his arms over his chest.  
“It won’t hurt you,” Max reassures with a tight smile.

Lucas tips it back. He sputters and swallows.

“It’s just water?” He asks in an incredulous tone.

“Holy water.”

Lucas shakes his head. “And staying on the mat?”

“That was so you remember to wipe your shoes off before you go tromping through my house. This idiot is too wise for that trick, unfortunately.” He jerks a thumb at Billy who pretends to be offended but takes the shot glass from Lucas, heading back inside. 

“I’m Jim Hopper, just call me Jim.” He sticks out a hand in introduction.

“Lucas Sinclair,” Lucas says, shaking his hand.

“Fiancé,” Max adds with a grin, slipping her arm through his.

“Get inside, both of you.” Jim holds the front door open and slams it shut behind them.

Max looks around the main room. It looks the same as ever, cluttered with stacks of books and the occasional weapon. Mugs half-filled with coffee dot the windowsill and table.

“Is Jane here?” It’s a relief to cut past the pleasantries and get right to business.

Jim peers at her, bushy eyebrow raised. “Don’t you keep in touch with her?” 

“Not as much as I’d like,” Max admits awkwardly. It’s easier than saying she hasn’t called.

Jim grunts. “Well, she lit out of here like her hair was fire once Harrington called. He’d found something that he thought might lead to The Lab and wanted backup. Guess his phone had shattered or something, you kids nowadays are too used to pressing the contact list rather than memorizing a person’s phone number. Look how it bit him in the ass, having to drive over.”

“The Lab,” Billy repeats. “You knew Steve didn’t have backup and thought it was gonna be fine? You just went along with sending Jane after him?”

Jim rolls his lips into a line, clearly unhappy. “You know I can’t say no to the kid. Anything to do with The Lab and she’s going to chase it down. I’m just glad she didn’t head off on her own this time.”

Billy interrupts. “Do you remember where they were headed?”

Jim shrugs. “She didn’t tell me exactly, something about she could handle it by herself and didn’t need her dad tagging along. Like raising a teenager all over again. Some people just don’t have any appreciation for the experience of others. Like those who have been doing this job about as long as they’ve been alive.”

He shoots a loaded look toward Billy who rolls his eyes. Max doesn’t bother to hide her giggle.

“Great,” Billy remarks flatly. “So glad we drove up here for hours just to get made fun of.”

“Ah, come off your high horse, Hargrove.” Jim claps him on the shoulder. “I’ll make lunch and you can tell me all about the latest mess you’ve got into.”

“Then you can tell us how you and Joyce are doing, long distance.” Max puts in her two cents slyly to Jim’s blustering denial.

“Take a seat, Billy.” Jim points to the empty kitchen chair. “If you drove all the way up here, you know damn well I’m not letting you leave without a little r ‘n r.”

Billy pushes back his curls with a hand. Max reaches for Lucas’s hand, finally seeing just how worn down he looks. Almost as bad as he’d looked when he had shown up in California, and that was less than two weeks ago.

“You doing okay?” Max checks in Lucas after lunch, when they’ve settled on the couch together. There’s a small tv, something that looks like it came out of the 1980s or early 1990s. It still has a VCR player at the bottom of it.

“Yeah,” Lucas says. Max curls up against him, letting him hold her close with a long arm over her shoulders. “This is how you grew up, huh? Travelling to a different place every month and fighting the good fight?”

“Everybody needs help,” Max confirms. “We just do what we can. It wasn’t every month that we moved; I spent the last half of high school here with Jim’s daughter. She’s about my age, we think.”

“You think she’s your age,” Lucas repeats slowly. “Should I even ask?”

Max rests her head on his shoulder. “Jim found her in the woods, lured her in with frozen waffles of all things. After being assured she wasn’t a demon or anything particularly nasty, he took her in and raised us both.”

She doesn’t tell Lucas about the forged documents that made them father and daughter in the eyes of the government. Max instead shares stories of taking down the high school bully, learning to drive and obey the traffic laws in Jim’s ancient Chevy Blazer, and figuring out makeup and fashion with Jane right by her side.

“It was fun,” Max concludes.

“I can see how that would be better than driving around in a car with Billy all day,” Lucas comments dryly. Max shrugs. 

There’s a crackle from the radio, breaking through the record player, making Jim and Billy both twist from their seats at the kitchen table to look at the appliance. 

“Hello? Jim?” Max’s eyes widen at Jane’s voice coming through the speaker. “The music is very distracting when we are trying to talk.”

Jim jumps up and turns off the record player in a hurry.

“Where are you, kid?” Billy asks. “Is Steve with you?”

“Billy?”

“Are you okay?” Jim cuts in.

“We are fine, me and Steve.” The radio crackles with static and Max holds her breath.

“Indiana.. Lab… again.”

“You’re breaking up, Janie.” Jim calls out loudly, like volume will make it easier for Jane to hear across the airwaves or however she does her trick. “Something about Indiana? Where?”

“Hawkins... Lab. We will be here for a week planning.”

“So Steve is with you?” Billy asks again, leaning forward.

“Yes. He says hello.”

“That stupid fuck.” Billy swears and drops back into his seat. Jim takes over again, telling Jane to get some rest. He assures her Billy and Max would set out the next morning to meet them in Indiana.

The radio clicks off without any of them touching it and they all sit in silence.

“What just happened?” Lucas breaks the tension. Billy gets up and heads straight to Jim’s liquor. He pours and takes a shot before pouring glasses for himself and for Jim.

“I don’t get one?” Max asks archly. “Or Lucas? We’re sitting right there, you know.”

“I thought you didn’t like whiskey, Max.”

“There’s also beer in the fridge.” Jim takes a heavy swallow of his amber liquid.

“So getting drunk instead of answers?” Lucas shakes his head when Max tilts a bottle in his direction. “That’s cool.”

“You’re not going anywhere tonight,” Jim states. “Too late to drive back down the mountain and I can tell Billy needs at least eight hours of sleep.”

“I’ll be fine with six,” Billy mutters to his empty glass.

“This feels familiar,” Lucas remarks and Max hides her smile, sitting back down next to him. “Is he always such a pill to get to sleep?”

“Only when he has to sleep alone,” Max tells him quietly, over the sounds of Billy arguing his case for less sleep than Jim wants him to have. “You ready for bed?”

“Do I get to see your bedroom?”

“Hey!” Jim barks, suddenly turning back into their conversation. “There will be no hanky panky underneath my roof. Door stays open three inches, you understand me?”

“Got it,” Max says with a breezy smile. “Not like I’m an adult or anything.”

“My house-”

“Your rules,” Max finishes with a roll of her eyes. She pulls Lucas off the couch as she rises to her feet. “See you in the morning.”

“You sure you should be antagonizing him?” Lucas checks once they’re upstairs and Max is poking around the room she hasn’t seen in close to a decade.  
She waves a hand. “It’s fine. It’s how we show we care. All bark, little bite.”

Max curls up next to Lucas once they’re both ready for bed, one leg thrown over him with her head on his shoulder. “Thanks for being here,” she says softly. “If I didn’t say it before.”

She drops a kiss to his chest and Lucas threads their fingers together where their hands rest on his stomach.

“I’m not good at words, sometimes.”

“I know,” he says and she can hear the smile in his voice. “Nowhere else I’d rather be, I told you that earlier and I meant it, Max.”

“I love you.” Lucas smiles into their kiss.

They’re on the road with the sun, Billy having bartered for six and half hours of sleep. Max registers her surprise that Jim hadn’t drugged him but leaves it alone. 

The drive back across the country is a lot like the one from California to Sioux Falls, Billy behind the wheel and pressing the Camaro as fast as she would go.

Max worries in her head about what they’re going to find, even though Jim promised to get in touch if he heard any updates.

They drive into a forest where the trees look like they’re leaning towards the car just as dusk falls. The fact that there’s a paved road is the only indication they’re on the right path.

Billy pulls the Camaro to a stop with a squeal of tires as the headlights illuminate a maroon BMW on the side of the road.

“Is that-” Lucas’s voice is hushed.

“Yeah,” Billy pulls up behind the car slowly. He honks the horn twice.

“Way to go,” Max grouses. “Anything around just heard us.”

“Only need one person to hear me.”

It’s no surprise that Billy sees the two figures first and is out of the car like he’s on fire. Max gets out more slowly, leaving Lucas to push the seat forward and climb out of the backseat as she watches the reunion.

Steve and Jane come to stand just in front of the tree line. Steve’s gun is in his hand and Jane’s nose is bleeding. Neither are good signs but it's silent around them.

“You left me,” Billy spits out, advancing on them. Steve holsters his weapon and lets Billy’s fist connect in a barely telegraphed right hook. He stumbles back, Jane keeping him upright. “You made me chase you halfway across the damn country, to end up back in Indi-fucking-ana.”

“It was always going to end here,” Jane says calmly and that gets Billy’s attention off Steve.

“End? The End?”

“The end of all things,” Jane tells them all solemnly. “Unless we stop it.”

“Yeah,” Steve sighs and pushes his hair back. “The vampires in Chicago, they were just a cog in a machine. Texas was a fluke since they’d already closed up shop-”

“Yeah, I know you don’t like things that go after kids,” Billy affirms. Max can feel Lucas’s presence to her left as they just watch the scene in front of them. “We noticed you took care of it.”

“Had to,” Steve says. “So then I headed up towards Jim because he’s got the books and lore, but then Jane had a vision or something and all but demanded we drive here to finish things.”

“Good thing I brought back up, then.” Billy says as he reaches out to touch Steve for the first time with gentleness.

Steve and Jane turn in sync to look at Max and Lucas next to the Camaro. It’s only a little creepy but Max is used to it. Lucas shivers next to her.

“Yeah, that’s good. Mike and Dustin are coming in too. We need the whole gang together.”

“Whatever it is, whatever the Lab has got cooking up now, we’re gonna defeat it. Just like last time.” Billy says to them all, hand grasping Steve’s shoulder. “Saving people, fighting evil. It’s sort of our thing, Steve.”

“And we’re damn good at it.” Steve smiles. The blood on his bat drips to the ground.

“Yep, we’re all great at it.” Max steps into the illuminated space. “So long as we stick together.”

“Yeah yeah, I got the message,” Steve mutters. Max smiles at him, leaves the rest of the message for Billy to pound into his head. Or elsewhere, but she tries not to think about that. As they have their own reunion - and Billy is never allowed to be mad about her and Lucas sucking face ever again, Max makes a mental note - Lucas introduces himself to Jane.

Max takes Lucas’s hand and thinks it’s a pretty good end to her “normal” non-Hunting life. Whatever is waiting in the woods won’t stand a chance against all of them together.

**Author's Note:**

> Cover and banner artwork by elysiumwaits: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27497107

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Art for "and the wheels keep on turning"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27497107) by [elysiumwaits](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elysiumwaits/pseuds/elysiumwaits)




End file.
